REPOST: This article was originally published in the Iowa City Press-Citizen (without links/media). Read the original article. In 1997, when fewer than a quarter of Americans were online, telecom giant MCI released a TV commercial that captured the cyber-optimism of the time. Over a montage of diverse faces, a chorus of voices declared: “There is no race. There are no genders. There is no age. There are no infirmities. There are only minds. Utopia? No, the Internet.” No ad executive would dare pitch such a concept today, unless she hoped to get laughed out of the room. If you still believe the Internet is a utopia, I recommend you read the comments…